


Shadow Under the Noonday Sun (Nil x Reader)

by MissScaryKitty



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fighting Kink, Hunters & Hunting, Rags to Riches, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-01-04 04:07:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21191288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissScaryKitty/pseuds/MissScaryKitty
Summary: The first time Nil saw you it was through the wooden bars of a cage. Your face, covered in dirt, turned upwards to meet his as he approached. He had a calm yet fearsome visage and wore a red crested Carja helmet that bragged of military prowess. You had watched him effortlessly slaughter the men who enslaved you and now he was moving towards you with that same savage grace. (previously Nil's Stray)





	1. Eyes of Blaze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nil finds you in a bandit camp and you have to decide whether to run or fight.

The first time Nil saw you it was through the wooden bars of a cage. Your face, covered in dirt, turned upwards to meet his as he approached. He had a calm yet fearsome visage and atop his head he wore a red crested Carja helmet that bragged of military prowess. You had watched him effortlessly slaughter the men who enslaved you, the men who you had tried to escape from numerous times and failed. Now, after cutting them down like wheat in a field, he was moving towards you with that same savage grace. This man was a killer by nature- an expert at his craft. You wondered if he would be the one to finally end your life.   
All Nil saw when he looked at you was a slip of a girl with haunted eyes. As he drew nearer, he watched as everyone in your shared little prison scurried away from him- all except you. The smallest, most feeble, of all of them did not shrink in his presence. And those eyes of yours, which he had noticed from afar, were gripping up close. They were not haunted but rather haunting- like two pools of blaze set alight. This little thing was all fire, Nil thought to himself before smashing the lock on the door and pulling it open.  
Your gaze bore into his, studying him, trying to read his intentions. But Nil’s expression gave nothing away. After all that you’ve been through, you couldn’t imagine he was some heroic savior out to do a good deed. You weren’t some hopeful waif hoping to be rescued- not anymore least ways. If you had to fight him, you would, even though you know you’d lose. Even at your most defeated, you were still going to fight to the very end. Call it foolishness, but that was who you were.   
“What is your name?” He asked you, ignoring the others. His voice was as soft as Carja silk and subtle as a Stalker. It sent a chill down your spine.  
Your heart pounded fearfully in your ears at his question. No matter how sacred you were, though, you would not become this man’s prisoner or prey. You were through with that life. If you died here fighting him, it was meant to be.   
Nil watched as you looked him up and down in distrust before bolting towards the cage door. He did nothing as you roughly pushed past him and tore through the bandit camp like a jackrabbit slipping the jaws of a fox. He continued to watch as you suddenly stopped at the entrance of the camp, skidding on your heels in the mud, before turning back to look at him. He locked gazes with you once more before giving you a solitary nod.   
To your shock, the warrior had not drawn his bow or demanded you to return. He simply inclined his head as if to say he understood why you’d run from him. Maybe he approved of your choice to do so. Perhaps he had meant to spare you and the others after all. Or maybe he was acknowledging your instinct to distrust him because he had no intention of keeping anyone in that camp alive. Regardless of the reason, you turned out of the camp and ran into the wilds, leaving him to do as he pleased.   
That same day, when nightfall hit, you followed the scent of smoke from a nearby campfire. The sweet aroma of burning pine sap called to you as you quietly approached through the woods on light feet. You had hoped to see some travelers weary from the road, willing to take pity on you. But, fate would have it, the campsite belonged to the red-crested warrior.   
You felt your heart begin to pound in that terrified rhythm once again. It was that same feeling you got when coming upon a Stalker. You immediately pressed yourself close to the forest floor and crawled on your elbows into a patch of high grass. Quiet and calm, you told yourself, all the while, wondering what he had done with the other prisoners you’d shamelessly left behind.   
You intently watched him from your hiding place. He seemed normal, however, you weren’t sure what you were looking for exactly. There really was no tell-tale sign of a bad man, though, the Carja armor gave you great pause. Still, that did not necessarily denote evil. He could be a follower of Avad’s new rule. But for all you knew, he could have been loyal to Jarin and his Kestrels or a deserter. Suddenly the man spoke, causing you to start.  
“My name’s Nil,” he said, his voice elevated just high enough for you to hear. You could see an amused smile playing at his lips. “You ran off so fast, I never got the chance to introduce myself.”   
He was purposefully looking away from you as he said this. However, it was painfully obvious that he knew you were out there watching him. He might have even known exactly where. Still, you did not move. Whether it be from fear or curiosity, you did not yet know. Instead, you stayed hidden all night and retreated just before sunup. The whole time neither of you made a move to get closer to the other. First of all, you were terrified, and he- well, he seemed oddly content. Perhaps even a bit amused. When daybreak was near an he was asleep, you ran back into the thick of forest to hide.   
A few hours later, having put some distance between yourself and Nil, as he had introduced himself, you found a slow-moving river in which to wash the weeks of dirt, sweat, and blood off you. It was strange how such a simple thing as bathing could make you feel human again. Realizing you were even able to still feel this way gave you hope.   
When your fear from the night before dissipated and you had time to think, you realized that Nil could have hunted you down at any time if he had wished, but he didn’t. He was a strange man, you decided, but just maybe he wasn’t a bad man. That evening, you found yourself returning to his campsite.   
Perhaps you went back because there was nowhere for you to go. You had no home anymore and no family to speak of. The Mad Sun King saw to that. So, following this stranger, Nil, was as logical a plan as any. Finding a tall, sturdy, tree close to his firepit, you climbed up onto a branch high up and waited to see if he noticed you like the previous night.   
He went about his business, roasting a rabbit over the fire and prepping a new set of arrows. Just as your eyes grew heavy, you heard him speak.  
“One can’t live off of foraging alone. Or at least they shouldn’t. The Voice of My Teeth snatched more than the lives of bandits today, I’ll leave you some for the morning when you decide to come down.”  
You felt a ping of worry in your heart and something akin in impressed. How did he know you were in the trees? It was pitch black and yet, somehow, he knew. Also, who or what was the Voice of My Teeth? Once the morning came and he was gone, you found he had left you a spit of ribbit meat wrapped up by the dead fire.   
Night after night, going to his campsite only became more normal. One evening, having tracked him through Devil’s Thirst into Devil’s Greif, you finally decided to show yourself.   
Nil had just thrown another log onto the fire, the flames bursting outward, when he heard a rustling in the trees. It came from a creature far larger than a boar or fox and as he turned his head, he saw your shadowed silhouette gracefully drop down from a tree branch not far off. You walked through the woods towards him until Nil could finally see those intense eyes of yours again, your face free of the dirt and grime of imprisonment. As if crossing a barrier into another world, you finally took the last step into his camp, the firelight fully illuminating your previously illusive form. This leap of faith seemed to please Nil- as if he’d been waiting for the night you’d feel comfortable enough to join him by the fire. You said nothing as you looked at him. Your stance was strong yet your hands were clenched nervously, fingers rubbing against you palms as you waited for him to say something. Nil offered you a light quirk of his lips and motioned for you to take a seat.   
“Welcome.”  
Neither you or he could have known it, but that was the moment you became inextricably bound to one another.


	2. The Song of Your Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After two weeks traveling with Nil, you finally tell him your name.

To Nil, you were somewhat like a stray. You’d disappear into the woods before sun up and mysteriously reappear at his campsite in the evening with freshly killed rabbits or boar meat. The two of you would share a meal and warmth of his fire in silence. Sometimes there would be an exchange of glances that conveyed short, wordless, conversations. When dinner was done, he’d hold out a bowl to you and you’d take it and bow your head in thanks before sitting down and savoring each bite. To your surprise, Nil was very good at roasting game.   
You had not spoken one word since he had released you from your cage in the bandit camp. It wasn’t that you were unable to speak, it was just that you hadn’t in a long time. When you did, it was only to people you trusted, and none of them had survived long in captivity. If you were ever ready to speak to Nil, you would.   
Still, Nil could intuit that you understood his language and so he would speak to you regardless, asking simple yes or no questions you could answer with a nod or shake of your head. Sometimes he’d make rhetorical comments or jokes. Though, his sense of humor was pretty morbid. His silken voice reminded you of the quiet song of the wilds and it had a peculiar calming effect on you.   
At first you wondered why he’d try to have a conversation with someone he assumed to be mute. Then you got to thinking that perhaps he enjoyed having the company. Even killers had to get lonely, you told yourself. Suddenly you realized the same could be said to you about him. Perhaps the company of a murderer was better than no company at all.   
Two weeks since your liberation had passed in the blink of an eye and in that time, spring had come to the Sacred Lands. Though the rains threatened to flood the rivers, you were grateful for less snow and warmer days.   
One evening, Nil told you he was traveling north towards Banuk territory since the mountain passes would be open again. He heard word from a trader in the last village that there were many raiders and bandits putting down roots in that area. Though he did not explicitly say it, you knew he was telling you his destination so you could follow him if you chose to do so. You weren’t thickheaded. A part of you was glad that he wanted to continue his journey with you. And so, you were never far behind him as he cut his way through Devil’s Grief. Sometimes you would even watch from a distance as Nil cleared bandit camps along the way. He was a true master of combat. Again, the only word that came to your mind to describe his movements as he took down his prey was effortless. If your time in Devil’s Grief taught you anything, it was that killing was his life’s calling and he enjoyed it more than anything.   
You, however, continued to hunt and forage in the comfortable solitude of your new life. It had been some time since you had known some semblance of peace. As strange as it was to say, life on the road with Nil was simple. Still, the gnawing voice in the back of your head told you to remain vigilant. You still did not know Nil’s purpose for all this killing. Did he have an allegiance to any tribe? Or was he a soldier of fortune? He met with no contacts, never sent word to any leader of his progress. You didn’t quite know how you’d feel if it turned out there was no reason for any of this killing. But you weren’t going to leave. This much you knew. Afterall, what other life was waiting out there for you? Whatever Nil’s final destination was, it had become yours by proxy.  
Nil never questioned the strangeness of your routine or your guardedness towards him that would crop up every now and then. Sometimes, even an odd movement from him would cause you to tense. However, with each meeting, you grew more and more comfortable in his presence. He had no intention of running you off either. You always shared the fresh game you snared or the herbs and machine parts you foraged. It was a gesture of good faith from you that he could not help but respect. He wasn’t even annoyed that he always prepared meals. He just assumed either you didn’t know how or that you simply liked his cooking. Also, it was not a bad idea to have an extra set of eyes at night for protection.

Though it was true that the snow was melting and the cold of winter was receding, the early spring rains were relentless- even to the point of punishing. During this time, Nil had finally learned your name. Another day in Devil’s Grief was ending and you had been caught in a deluge that seemed like it would never break. You had finished gathering a rabbit from your last snare when the rain, which had started off as a mere sprinkle, had begun to come down hard. Even through the greyness, you could tell that the sun was already beginning to set. It was time to start thinking about finding Nil’s camp. He had mentioned a bandit outpost to the west so you began to head that way. When you found it had already been cleared out, you picked up on Nil’s trail on the road outside and followed the quickly fading tracks over muddy scrabble and deer trails until they took a turn into a wooded area.   
Shortly after entering the woods, you came upon a cave that bore deep into the ground. A small flash of red in the dirt in front of the opening caught your eye and you knelt down to take a look. You felt an odd flutter in your stomach as you realized the object was one of the red feathers from Nil’s helmet that he had stuck into the ground as a marker. He must have taken shelter in the cave and left the feather for you to find, you thought to yourself. Picking it up, you wiped the mud off of it and slipped it into a pouch on your belt before beginning your descent into the cave.  
Taking care not to slip and fall, you climbed down the steep incline and into the cave. Safe from the rain inside the opening, you squeezed the water out of your hair and clothes. You were completely soaked through and shaking from the cold. The thought of a fire and Nil’s cooking made you shiver with anticipation.   
As you ventured further in, the grey rock walls dissolved into metal hallways with grated floors and arched doors. The cave was actually ruins from the Old Ones, you realized. That thought sparked a tinge of worry in your heart seeing as you’d always been warned never to enter them. But your blossoming fear soon faded once you spotted the orange glow of fire up ahead. Quickening your pace, you followed it until you came upon the source.  
Turning into a doorway at the end of another metal hall, you found Nil in a large circular room with several banks of electronic servers against the walls and a small hole in the ceiling where vine-covered tree roots reached down into the middle of the space. It was an oddly beautiful blend of nature and architecture.   
Nil had a medium-sized fire going from dried-out branches he had gathered from outside. He was sitting on what looked to be an old footlocker and on the other side of the fire looked like a filing cabinet he had tipped over for you. He heard you enter and looked over to see you standing in the doorway, drenched to the bone. As you drew closer, you could see that he was just getting dry himself.   
“This is a place of death,” said Nil, not seeming to take issue with that fact. “It’s believed the ruins of the Old Ones are cursed with their spirits. But they never say what will happen to you if you go into one.”  
You pointedly cocked your head to the side, wet hair sticking to your face, as you regarded him. If he was trying to scare you, well you weren’t buying it.   
“You don’t believe in ghosts?” He asked, somewhat surprised by your deadpan reaction to his previous statement.   
You snorted and shook your head before taking a seat on the cabinet.   
“I promise you; ghosts are very real.” He told you softly. Those blue eyes of his, colored gold by the orange of the firelight, told you he wasn’t lying. That look he gave you was deeply honest and it struck you to the core. “In any case, this a good place to get out of the rain.”  
You nodded almost imperceptibly before pulling the rabbit you had caught from your bag and began to skin it. You felt Nil’s eyes on you the whole time and you couldn’t help but feel a rush of color come to your cheeks and your skin prickle in embarrassment. Still, you pretended not to notice the handsome Carja as he watched you through the flames.  
An hour passed in relative silence as Nil roasted the rabbit you had prepared. It took until half the meat had already been stripped from the carcass and eaten before he looked across the flames to you once more. This time your eyes met and your breath caught in your throat as you waited for him to speak.  
“It’s been fourteen nights and five glorious hunts and I still don’t know your name,” he said with a quirk of a smile. There was mischief in his eyes and your heart sped up from wanting to know the cause of it. “It doesn’t seem right to call a person ‘you’ or ‘girl’. Maybe I should give you a name.”  
Your brows immediately furrowed in aversion to the suggestion. Even if he was just being playful, you were not about to let him name you like you were a pet or his bow. You held up one finger to him in a sign to make him wait a moment as you got up and began looking round the room.   
Nil smiled to himself as he watched you. He’d hoped his words would spur you into some kind of action. He didn’t know it would be so resolute. Beneath that pretty, rabbit-like, exterior it seemed you were quite assertive. He found he enjoyed it.   
Finding a dead computer screen mounted into a server, you used your finger to write in the dust on the glass. Turning to him you pointed at the glyphs you had written. Nil got up and walked across the room to where you stood so he could see the screen. His cocksure grin faded as he regarded the single word etched in glass dust. It was your name.  
“That’s much better than the one I made up for you,” he said, trying to hide his amazement with one of his quips.  
Nil stared down at your well-formed glyphs, quietly thinking it was nice to finally have a name to put to your face. He would have to use it next time it was appropriate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alriiight, so we got some meaningful looks in this chapter along with some very Nil-like dialogue. Told ya'll it was a slow burn. But hey, he knows your name now. Also, I'm not going to use (Y/N) or (H/C) (E/C) in this story. I want it to be as seamless as possible and those abbreviations tend to take me out of a second person narrative.   
I'm hoping this is turning out alright cause I'm just shamelessly plugging away at it.   
Anyway, peace!


	3. The Metal Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Nil meet Demeter.

You woke up well past dawn the next day to find a thick grey fur draped over you. You remember it being cold last evening but could not remember Nil giving it to you at any point in the night. He must have done it while you were sleeping. You couldn’t help but wonder what motivated it.  
Realizing how late it was, your heart rate skyrocketed as you bolted upright and looked across the campfire to where Nil had set up his bedroll the night before. The Carja hunter was nowhere in the room but his armor and traveling pack were still there so he must have been close by. You looked at his red crested helmet and reached into the leather pouch on your belt to feel the soft brush of the feather he had left outside for you to find.  
You felt a swell in your chest at the idea that he did not want to leave you behind. Almost as immediately as the feeling came, you chastised yourself, knowing that it was dangerous to get attached to people. Especially a man like him. So, you took your fingers off the red plume even though you couldn’t will the feelings it brought away.  
Hauling yourself to your feet, you looked around the room, taking inventory. The flames of the fire, though low, were still being tended to. You added a few more branches from the pile Nil had gathered onto the flames. Since the room was pretty large, you wanted to keep as much of the heat in as you could.  
A small pool had formed in the middle of the room from the opening in the ceiling. Water was still pouring in at a steady trickle, but there didn’t seem to be any danger of it overflowing the natural basin it was filling. It appeared that these ruins had been exposed to many years of harsh storms and intrusions from the outside world. One day of heavy rain wasn’t going to bring it down. Wrapping the thick fur around your shoulders, you made your way to the opening of the cave to check how bad the weather was.  
You heard the storm before you saw it. A sudden boom of thunder echoed down the hallway causing your heart to leap in your chest. The worst of the storm was right above you, you thought. Peering out from the base of the incline, you could see that the rain was still fiercely coming down in heavy sheets. It was too dangerous to travel the wilds of Devil’s Grief without being able to see more than five feet in front of you. You could blindly stumble into a snapmaw nest or a scrapper pack. There was nothing to do but wait out the storm. Right as you came to this conclusion, a flash of lighting lit up the mouth of the cave followed by another boom of thunder.  
You felt your stomach flutter in nervous uncertainty as you realized you’d be spending this time with Nil. He was intriguing, to be sure. For the little time you’ve known him, he had shown you a surprising amount of patience and understanding- even moments of kindness. But you had also seen what he could do to the people he had no regard for and that little voice inside your head continued to nag at you- what was this desire for blood that burned so relentlessly in him? Where did it come from?  
Just then, you heard a distant clang of metal on metal down the hallway behind you. You turned around, squinting into the darkness to find nothing there- the noise had come from further off. Quieting your thoughts about Nil, you turned back inside the cave and went to search out the source of the noise. You hoped it was just the Carja hunter fooling around with Old World junk. So many people claimed that these places were cursed, and although you did not believe in ghosts, you felt a nervous tightening in your stomach as you followed the direction of the noise you heard before.  
There were more rooms and hallways branching off from the main control room than you thought. This ruin seemed more like a maze to you now than a cave. Several of the smaller rooms contained strange metal beds and work stations. All of it looked very uncomfortable. You wondered how the Old Ones made their world habitable with all this unfeeling steel. Turning the corner at the end of the hallway, you found a set of stairs that delved even deeper into the earth. You wondered if Nil was down there poking around.  
You carefully descended the stairs and cautiously peeked around the corner to find a much dryer hallway that branched off into more rooms. These looked less like living spaces and more like workshops of some sort. There were glass vials, metal pots, and all sorts of tools set out on long metal tables that reminded you of a medicine man’s hut. All that was missing were the strange colorful powders and dried herbs.  
You then proceeded into the next room. It was considerably larger with four giant machine apparatuses taking up the floor space and a triangular metal door built into the back wall.  
The door was unlike anything you had ever seen. It’s intriguing shape and intimidating size drew you nearer, like a moth to the flame. Something inside your chest stirred, like rain on a lake’s surface. You took a deep breath and approached it, wondering if you could possibly get a glimpse at what was behind the metal barrier. Your eyes fell on a small pedestal in front of the door. Atop it looked like some sort of button or trigger. Nil’s whereabouts were all but forgotten as you slowly reached out and set your fingers atop the cold metal and pressed down on it. Barely a moment later, a man made of colored light sprang forth from nowhere. He stood on the dais in front of the door and smiled right at you.  
“Hello, I am Naoto. Welcome to Demeter…”  
A frightened scream escaped your lips as you stumbled backwards in terror towards the door from which you entered. The fur you had draped over your shoulders fell to the ground causing you to trip over it and knock into the solid form of the person behind you. Sucking in a terrified breath, you spun around to see a fiercely alert Nil, his teeth bared, ready to fight. He gripped onto your shoulder to keep you steady while he reached for his knife and threw it at the projection of Doctor Naoto. The knife sailed right through the image and bounced ineffectively off the metal door with a metallic clank.  
Nil’s expression dropped and his eyebrows shot up. “Well that’s disappointing,” he said flatly.  
The two of you stared at the projection and soon realized no one was actually there. Nil laughed in what might have been relief as he gave your shoulder a comforting squeeze before letting go.  
You cautiously walked back up to the podium to stare more closely at the projection. It was amazing, really. The mix of colors, light, and air created something so lifelike, so wondrous. You could barely take in what the man, Naoto, was saying you were so entranced by the mechanism itself. Suddenly, the message ended and the man disappeared.  
Nil sighed, having relaxed fully from the scare earlier. “What a shame. I thought maybe there was something down here I could kill.” A fox-like grin tugged at his lips as he turned his attention fully on you. “By the way, was that a scream I heard from you earlier?”  
Your cheeks burned red at his teasing and you refused to look him in the eye. It almost felt like you had slipped up in a way.  
“Don't worry, it’s not the first time I’ve heard your voice. You cry out in your sleep,” he said, walking over and retrieving his knife. He slipped it back into its sheath all the while watching your expression fall, shocked at what he revealed.  
“The only way to silence your nightmares is to cut the ones who’ve wounded you from this world. After you do that, there’s nothing more to fear.” He told you, leveling his bight silver eyes on you. Without his feather helmet, those sharp hues stood out even more against his tan skin and dark hair.  
If your fear could be quelled by vengeance as Nil said, the man himself had already taken that opportunity from you. Bloodshed could not be the answer, but perhaps Nil was trying to suggest that it was the way forward. This idea made you uneasy.  
Unable to decide how to answer him, you turned away, and headed back over to the podium to examine it. Finding no other functions, you pushed the same button you had before.  
The man made of light appeared once more and began his speech again. Nil came up alongside you and listened in.  
“Hello, I am Naoto. Welcome to Demeter, the subordinate function in charge of the recreation of the floral biosphere. Demeter stores the largest genetic library of plants and fungi ever created. Unlike Artemus, Demeter is fully self-governing so that all who come after us can immediately begin to enjoy her bounty. When in need of a specific species, one can simply find it in their datapads and request Demeter to create it. Data points such as metal flowers have been dispersed across the planet, creating a network for Demeter to oversee and assist in the revegetation of the planet. It is a brave new world, so let us get started...”  
The image flickered out, leaving the metal dais empty once more.  
“Was it just me, or did that man just say a whole lot of nothing?” Nil asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.  
You bit you lower lip in thought, eyes drawn to the floor, as you carefully pulled apart each thing the man said. Whatever Demeter was, it seemed to be able to create plants and control where they grow. You had seen one of the metal flowers he had mentioned before long ago at a trader’s stall in Meridian, but you never saw it make plants grow- nor had the merchant selling it claimed it would. It just seemed like an overpriced trinket a nobleman would buy his wife. She wondered, if there was more than one flower present, whether or not they were capable of communicating with one another sort of like the machines? Naoto mentioned a library of all the plant life on the planet stored in something called a data pad and that it could be used to create any plant the user wanted. It looked like he had been holding one of those data pads in the message. Maybe, you needed one of those devices to make the metal flowers work, you thought.  
You glanced over to Nil and pointed to the metal door, indicating that the two of you should find a way through.  
“You want to go in there?” He asked, surprised by your unvarnished bravery. “That might be a problem. It looks shut up pretty tight.”  
You crossed over to the metal door and laid your hand against it. There seemed to be no way through but the ruin was ancient, and if the decay of the upper floor was anything to go by, perhaps there was another entrance, you thought to yourself.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is finally beginning to take form! With the introduction of Demeter, I now know Aloy will have to make an appearance in this story as well! If you like what you're reading please leave kudos or a comment :) thanx


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